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March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march. The march was organized by a group of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations. Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 (police) to over 300,000 (leaders of the march). About 80% of the marchers were African American and 20% white and other ethnic groups. The march is widely credited as helping lead to the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the National Voting Rights Act (1965).
Organization
Demonstrator at the March on Washington. The march was initiated by A. Philip Randolph (international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, president of the Negro American Labor Council, and vice president of the AFL-CIO), who had planned a similar march in 1941. The threat of the earlier march had convinced President Roosevelt to establish the Committee on Fair Employment Practice and bar discriminatory hiring in the defense industry. The 1963 march was organized by Randolph, James Farmer (president of the Congress of Racial Equality), John Lewis (president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Martin Luther King, Jr. (president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), Roy Wilkins (president of the NAACP), and Whitney Young (president of the National Urban League). Bayard Rustin, a civil rights veteran and organizer of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, the first of the Freedom Rides to test the Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel, administered the details of the march. The march was not universally supported among African-Americans. Some civil rights activists were concerned that it might turn violent, which could undermine pending legislation and damage the international image of the movement. The march was condemned by Malcolm X, spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, who termed it the "farce on Washington". March organizers themselves disagreed over the purpose of the march. The NAACP and Urban League saw it as a gesture of support for a civil rights bill that had been introduced by the Kennedy Administration. Randolph, King, and the SCLC saw it as a way of raising both civil rights and economic issues to national attention beyond the Kennedy bill. SNCC and CORE saw it as a way of challenging and condemning the Kennedy administration's inaction and lack of support for civil rights for African-Americans.[1] SpeakersThe speakers included all six civil-rights leaders of the so called, "Big Six (civil rights)"; Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious leaders; and labor leader Walter Reuther. The one female speaker was Josephine Baker. James Farmer, who was imprisoned in Louisiana at the time, had his speech read by Floyd McKissick Media coverageMedia attention gave the march national exposure, carrying the organizers' speeches and offering their own commentary. In his section The March on Washington and Television News, William Thomas notes: "Over five hundred cameramen, technicians, and correspondents from the major networks were set to cover the event. More cameras would be set up than had filmed the last Presidential inauguration. One camera was positioned high in the Washington Monument, to give dramatic vistas of the marchers".[2] The marchOn August 28, more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airliners, and uncounted cars converged on Washington. The regularly scheduled planes, trains, and buses were also filled to capacity.[1] The march failed to start on time, because its leaders were meeting with members of Congress. To the leaders' surprise, the assembled group began to march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial without them. Representatives from each of the sponsoring organizations addressed the crowd from the podium. Floyd McKissick read James Farmer's speech because Farmer had been arrested during a protest in Louisiana; Farmer had written that the protests would not stop "until the dogs stop biting us in the South and rats stop biting us in the North." Musician Bob Dylan performed several songs, including "Only a Pawn in Their Game," about the culturally-fed racial hatred amongst Southern whites that led to the assassination of Medgar Evers; and "When the Ship Comes In," during which he was joined by fellow folksinger Joan Baez. King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech, which was carried live by TV stations. Controversy over John Lewis' speechAlthough one of the officially stated purposes of the march was to support the civil rights bill introduced by the Kennedy Administration, several of the speakers criticized the proposed law as insufficient. John Lewis' of SNCC speech which a number of SNCC activists had helped write took the Administration to task for how little it had done to protect southern blacks and civil rights workers under attack in the Deep South. While he toned down his comments under pressure from others in the movement, his words still stung:[3]
Cut from his original speech[4] at the insistence of more conservative and pro-Kennedy leaders were phrases such as:
Along with Lewis, many activists from SNCC, CORE, and even SCLC were angry and bitter at what they considered censorship of his speech. See alsoNotes and references
External links
hr:Mar? na Washington 1963. ja:???????? pt:Marcha sobre Washington ru:???? ?? ????????? simple:March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom sv:Marschen mot Washington för arbete och frihet Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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